Comings and Goings In Halifax Harbour

Category Archives: tugs

Svitzer tug Pointe aux Basques arrived in Halifax today. This was a bit of a surprise, as the port website was listing the arrival of fleet mate Pointe Sept Iles .

Mac at Tugfax reports these tugs will now be stationed in Halifax, since thier contract at Sept-Iles, QC with Iron Ore Company of Canada expired. The two Twins have been stationed in Sept-Ills since they were built in 1972.

Halifax is an odd location, since Svitzer has a joint operation with Atlantic towing, With Svitzer handling tug duties in Port Hawksbery and Atlantic towing in Halifax.

(Above) Sable Sea being cold moved to pier 9. She was moved to Halterm last week, presumbaly to free up pier space for the cable ships.(Below) Pilot boat APA No.1 tied up perpendicular to the dock. they appered to be working on her exhaust.

posts this past week have been non-existent due to a Florida Vacation. This post will show some of the Tug Varieties that are commonly found. Due to USCG Crewing regulations, US companies prefer to use tugs and barges over similar sized ships due to the smaller required crew.

(Above) the tug Julie docked unmated from her Barge. You can see the mating pins just aft of her name. (Below) The ATB Acadia (Tug Unknown) mated and loaded.

It appears the Lyubov Orlova will simply drift away to become another countries problem. After being towed away from the Searose FPSO by Atlantic Hawk, the Tow was handed off to Maersk Challenger, another St John’s based AHST, chartered by Transport Canada.

Rather then return the ship to Port – no port appeared willing to accept the Lyubov Orlova, Maersk challenger, towed her beyond the 200nm limit, and cut her free in international waters. The Lyubov Orlova will drift untill she is Sunk by weather, hits another country, or is claimed by her owners.

Transport Canada maintains that the vessel is still the responsibility of her owners; The Owners likely will not go after the vessel as the cost will be more the the value of the vessel; and if she doesnt sink, the Lyubov Orlova will become another countries problem.

Given the rash of scrap vessels going adrift, The federal Government should pass a law requiring any vessel being towed from within Canadian territorial waters, to outside to carry sufficient insurance for recovery, prior to being allowed to leave port.

UPDATE: It is now reported that the Maersk Challenger took the tow, however the Tow line parted in heavy seas. It was decided to let the Lubov Orlova drift, as she was no longer a danger to off shore installations, nor in Canadian Waters. The owner claims he intends to recover the vessel, however Transport Canada forbids him from doing so with the Charlene Hunt.

Huskey Energy is reporting that one of its boats has taken the Lyubov Orlova Under tow.Huskey is the Operator of the Hiberina platform off Newfoundland, and contracted Atlantic Towing to provide platform support vessels.As the Lyubov Orlova was adrift without crew, this would count as salvage, meaning Atlantic Towing could file a claim against the vessel to cover its costs for recovery. Given the vessel was sold for scrap, and is likely uninsured, it likely means it is now Atlantic Towings’ to scrap to recover thier costs.

Update via the TelegramAs of 4 p.m. today, the towed MV Lyubov Orlova was 100 kilometres north of Husky Energy’s SeaRose floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform, according to a spokeswoman for the operator.

An offshore supply vessel, the Atlantic Hawk, began towing the previously adrift vessel at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday. As of 10 a.m. Thursday, it was 70 kilometres north of the FPSO platform.

Looks like the tug Charlene Hunt snapped a tow line and is having trouble reconnecting.See shipfax for more on the tug. (which waited out weather in Halifax in Dec, and arrived in newfoundland damaged due to additional weather.

(Left) To Vessels at bottom are the Charlene Hunt and the CCGS Cape Roger. Initial reports were that the Lyubov Orlova was drifting out to sea.

A derelict Russian cruise ship that left St. John’s this week for the scrapyard is drifting in open seas.

The Lyubov Orlova finally left St. John’s Harbour on Wednesday afternoon after being tied up for nearly two-and-a-half years.

It was being towed to the Dominican Republic to be scrapped when the Coast Guard was notified on Thursday that the tow line had snapped.

It happened about 12 kilometres east of Cape Race.

No one was on board the Orlova at the time.

There were high winds in the area Thursday evening, with five- to six-metre waves, causing more issues for the ship – though a spokesperson for the Coast Guard said those winds should diminish overnight.

The crew of the tug boat Charlene Hunt was trying to reconnect the line. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard vessel Cape Roger is en route to monitor the situation.

The Coast Guard is advising mariners to be cautious if travelling through the area.

Quote “It was there that I saw the tow line go slack and watch the Tugs jockey it into a stable position. The icy winds kept the Destroyer bobbing around nicely in the seas due to it being much lighter without its armament and electronics suite onboard. It must have been quite the chore for the Tugs to keep her steady.”

Thanks to Erik Fullerton of Three Miles Final Photography for the use of the images.